Product reviews for The Hypnotic Use of Waking Dreams

This book will be of particular interest to those who currently use Past Life Experience therapy as a useful tool in the treatment of clients, as well as those who ,might be tempted to use past life therapy but are unsure how their clients would receive such suggestions.

The author calls the experiences “waking dreams” because of all the derision he received from his colleagues in the psychotherapeutic community when he talked about past lives and reincarnation. In truth, there is very little difference between the two strategies but using the waking dreams title would possibly persuade more clients to embark on this particular form of treatment, since it has none of the connotations of weirdness associated with past life therapy.

There are some rather fascinating case studies, transcribed pretty much verbatim, apart from changing clients' real names to preserve anonymity. In a change from the usual past life experiences, Paul Schenk found that it was often possible for characters from previous -˜dreams' to cross over into subsequent ones, in order to become -˜co-therapists' on the client's behalf. The transcripts of these occurrences make very interesting reading and could be utilised by anyone using the strategy, whatever title they were calling it.

The only problem I had with the transcripts was the fact that Paul Schenk's language is pretty eloquent and 1 would have problems living up to his standards but, other than that, reading this book could give some great ideas for treating clients who seem to be -˜stuck' and with whom nothing else appears to have worked. What the book also shows is that -˜past life experiences' don't have to be true in order for the healing to take place. In fact, the author always encouraged clients who said they weren't -˜getting anything' to just make it up and they inevitably found themselves going with the flow and soon got into their stride.

The author doesn't neglect the spiritual side of things either. He is quite happy when clients start to talk about their -˜guides' and other spiritual beings although he never brings anyone's religion or lack of it, into the proceedings. All in all, the book should appeal to most therapists, whatever their beliefs about reincarnation and Near Death Experiences, as a very useful therapeutic tool.